Wuthering Heights, Post 1
So far in the novel, Mr. Lockwood is the main character. Mr. Heathcliff also serves as an important character in the story. To start off the discussion, I would like all members to respond to these questions.
Is the room in which Mr. Lockwood stays haunted? If so, by what is it haunted?
Mr. Heathcliff, in the beginning of the novel, yells out of the window to “Cathy”. Why does he do this? Who is he referring to?
Why do you think Mr. Lockwood is so disturbed by his dreams? He is even disturbed enough to leave the room. Is he afraid of something?
(Megan Douglas)
Category: Discussion Director, Per 1 WH DD 6 comments »
February 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Megan-
Interesting opening question, but a little limited. Maybe have one or two more questions. Some more open ended ones as well. Just a suggestion. Esspecially if you get very weak responses.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I believe the room is in fact haunted. I think that the names carved into the bed post thing are important and will serve a purpose later in the story. Mr. heathcliff could have possible have been calling to one of the cathrines carved into the bed. I believe Mr. lockwood was less disturbd by the dreams and more disturbed by the fact that a ghost grabbed his hand
February 14th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I agree with Brett that the room is haunted. The fact that Lockwood found Catherine Earnshaw’s diary in that room, along with all three names carved into the bed is weird.
Heathcliff yells out to Cathy because he loved Catherine Earnshaw, and that’s what her family called her.
I think that Lockwood is more disturbed by the ghost hand than his dreams, and he left the room because Heathcliff was arguing that it is not haunted, even though he just experienced interaction with a ghost.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I also think that the room was haunted. The only other option would be that Mr. Lockwood was having hallucination, in which case those hallucination were to freaky for the room not to be haunted. Reading on in the novel, one can learn that Catherine and Mr. Heathcliff were close growing up, so something must have happened to tear them apart. I don’t really think that Mr. Lockwood was afraid of the nightmare, but afraid of the hand through the window thing.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
It is hard to say whether the room is really haunted or not. Haunted is a word that’s meaning could be negotiated. For example, if one says something is haunted, does that mean there are real ghosts? Going by that definition, no the room is not haunted for the only ghostlike figure in the room was in Lockwood’s dream. I think better words to describe to the room would be creepy or spooky. There is definitely a sense of scariness in the room, whether it is there in the room or just brought upon by one’s imagination.
When yelling out of the window, Mr. Heathcliff is referring to Catherine Heathcliff/Earnshaw/Linton. He perhaps could still be somewhat asleep and is screaming this while not totally awake.
Mr. Lockwood is disturbed by his dreams because he had never heard of this Catherine much before he read the journals. The situations that he had read about were new and different. Because of this, he has the room to imagine the details and what could have happened. He does indeed do this through his dreams. I think that he is more afraid of his own imagination than by any event that really did happen. He could also be frightened of the idea of Catherine, for she seems to be a different type of character.
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Responders: You all need to deepen your responses. Mostly just scratching the surface of the issues Megan brought to your attention. Also defend your answers, bring in more textual support!